By Oliver Gray
Investing.com - The S&P/ASX 200 added 56.5 points or 0.78% to 7308.7 on Wednesday, easing from a 1.4% gain in early trade and rebounding from 7-week lows touched in the previous session, with market participants tracking relief rally in US equities overnight and exercising a ‘buy the dip’ mentality.
Locally, Prime Minister Scott Morrison noted that the current coronavirus situation will continue to be tough for Australians over the next months as infections accelerate across the country, while signaling that there will be no return of wage subsidy program “JobKeeper.” New South Wales reported 110 fresh cases today, Victoria added 22 cases, while South Australia reported a single case.
Among stocks, Oil Search surged 3.85% as investors anticipated a revised proposal from Santos after reporting the rejected takeover offer earlier in the week. Meantime, Kogan fell 1.45% after narrowing its full year earnings guidance to A$61.1 million, while Altium dropped 4.79% after Autodesk confirmed that it has walked away from its $5 billion bid for the company.
On the data front, preliminary Retail Sales data showed a decline of 1.8% from a month earlier, posting the largest fall so far this year as protracted lockdowns dampened demand, while the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Leading Index slowed from 1.68% in May to 1.34% in June while still signaling above-trend growth, buoyed mainly by rising commodity prices.